Friday, November 28, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
So I'm a slacker. Who didn't know that?!
Wow! How does so much time pass so quickly? Everything here is good. This will be a long post so feel free to come back when you've got more time to read everything. I'll try to update y'all on the major happenings of the last month.
CS4Qatar Conference
It stands for "Computer Science for Qatar" and is Carnegie Mellon University's organization that
sponsors workshops for teachers and students here. Last week, I spent the whole of Saturday at there campus and learned about Becker's Robots and Programming Competitions. Becker's Robots is a way to introduce and teach basic syntax in Java using a graphical environment that simulates the streets in a city. I plan to introduce it to my students next week as they begin learning the concept of loops. The programming competition material was wonderful and I think I'll incorporate some of their ideas into my regular class. It was a wonderful day!
Karaoke Night
Last night, a neighbor in my building, James, hosted a Karaoke Night and it was very well attended (at least 20 people). We had tons of fun singing songs from "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra to "Oops, I Did it Again" by Britney Spears. Since most of us grew up in the 70's and 80's, the musical selection available was wonderful. I had to laugh really hard at myself when I got up to sing "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield because I only remembered the chorus! LOL. I did a much better job with Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" sung as a duet with Ryan. The best song of the night, earning a perfect score of 50,000 points was "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston, sung by Carolyn and _______ (I think it was Jenny...). I had a great time and yes, my throat was very sore by the time it was over. I gotta get one of these machines!
Church
Well, I found a church that I'll call home. There really aren't many choices here in Doha but I've found a compromise I'm happy with. It has a contemporary worship service and the doctrine is the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. It is a charismatic church but not off the deep end. :-) I'm still listening to teachings from home to supplement, too.
Spa Day
Tomorrow will be a day spent at the InterContinental Hotel's spa, courtesy of the PTA of the school. All new teachers were given a day pass and they expire next week. Tons of us will be using it tomorrow.
Car
The car is still running but it has a major problem with the gear box that will take about $3000 USD to fix. I've decided not to fix it but to keep driving it until it won't drive any more. At least that's the plan right now. I'll look at buying a better vehicle when this one is a goner. The banks here will give a car loan at 4% interest. Not bad!
Classes
Classes are going well. My robotics students are just starting a Robot War competition where each team (I only have 5 kids so that's three teams) builds a robot that can locate and move to its oppenent via sensors and has a weapon to try to disable the opponent robot. They are so psyched! Intro to Programming students have learned tons with Alice (www.alice.org) and will be moving on to actually Java in a couple of weeks. My AP Computer Science students are doing well and really getting the hang of Java. Upcoming topics are loops and then arrays. Parent-Teacher conferences were held recently and many parents were interested in looking at what their children could do in the computer field both in high school and on into college. Exciting!
Weather
The weather has definitely cooled down now and is quite beautiful. It's 84 degrees (F) at 3pm. The humidity is mostly gone. I'm told we are entering the winter. This is incredibly difficult for me to accept as my last 9 years involved winters with temperatures below freezing. This is winter??? No way, Jose! This is a beautiful Spring day in Ft. Lauderdale!
Winter Break
Our winter break runs from December 5th to January 3rd. It's really long this year because a Muslim holiday, Eid al Adha, gives us the first week off. The school decided that it isn't smart to have everyone then return to school for one more week before the normal two week winter break. So wahoo! In an effort to save some(!) money, I'm not going home for the break (tickets alone are over $1700!). Instead, I've decided to go see some friends a bit closer to where I am. I'll go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 12 days to see the Vicknairs, friends from Moscow. I'm really excited to see 'real Africa' as I've only seen Cairo and Tunisia, both of which are not characteristic of the majority of Africa.
Well, that's all I can think of for now. Thanks for being patient with me!!!
CS4Qatar Conference
It stands for "Computer Science for Qatar" and is Carnegie Mellon University's organization that
sponsors workshops for teachers and students here. Last week, I spent the whole of Saturday at there campus and learned about Becker's Robots and Programming Competitions. Becker's Robots is a way to introduce and teach basic syntax in Java using a graphical environment that simulates the streets in a city. I plan to introduce it to my students next week as they begin learning the concept of loops. The programming competition material was wonderful and I think I'll incorporate some of their ideas into my regular class. It was a wonderful day!
Karaoke Night
Last night, a neighbor in my building, James, hosted a Karaoke Night and it was very well attended (at least 20 people). We had tons of fun singing songs from "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra to "Oops, I Did it Again" by Britney Spears. Since most of us grew up in the 70's and 80's, the musical selection available was wonderful. I had to laugh really hard at myself when I got up to sing "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield because I only remembered the chorus! LOL. I did a much better job with Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" sung as a duet with Ryan. The best song of the night, earning a perfect score of 50,000 points was "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston, sung by Carolyn and _______ (I think it was Jenny...). I had a great time and yes, my throat was very sore by the time it was over. I gotta get one of these machines!
Church
Well, I found a church that I'll call home. There really aren't many choices here in Doha but I've found a compromise I'm happy with. It has a contemporary worship service and the doctrine is the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. It is a charismatic church but not off the deep end. :-) I'm still listening to teachings from home to supplement, too.
Spa Day
Tomorrow will be a day spent at the InterContinental Hotel's spa, courtesy of the PTA of the school. All new teachers were given a day pass and they expire next week. Tons of us will be using it tomorrow.
Car
The car is still running but it has a major problem with the gear box that will take about $3000 USD to fix. I've decided not to fix it but to keep driving it until it won't drive any more. At least that's the plan right now. I'll look at buying a better vehicle when this one is a goner. The banks here will give a car loan at 4% interest. Not bad!
Classes
Classes are going well. My robotics students are just starting a Robot War competition where each team (I only have 5 kids so that's three teams) builds a robot that can locate and move to its oppenent via sensors and has a weapon to try to disable the opponent robot. They are so psyched! Intro to Programming students have learned tons with Alice (www.alice.org) and will be moving on to actually Java in a couple of weeks. My AP Computer Science students are doing well and really getting the hang of Java. Upcoming topics are loops and then arrays. Parent-Teacher conferences were held recently and many parents were interested in looking at what their children could do in the computer field both in high school and on into college. Exciting!
Weather
The weather has definitely cooled down now and is quite beautiful. It's 84 degrees (F) at 3pm. The humidity is mostly gone. I'm told we are entering the winter. This is incredibly difficult for me to accept as my last 9 years involved winters with temperatures below freezing. This is winter??? No way, Jose! This is a beautiful Spring day in Ft. Lauderdale!
Winter Break
Our winter break runs from December 5th to January 3rd. It's really long this year because a Muslim holiday, Eid al Adha, gives us the first week off. The school decided that it isn't smart to have everyone then return to school for one more week before the normal two week winter break. So wahoo! In an effort to save some(!) money, I'm not going home for the break (tickets alone are over $1700!). Instead, I've decided to go see some friends a bit closer to where I am. I'll go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 12 days to see the Vicknairs, friends from Moscow. I'm really excited to see 'real Africa' as I've only seen Cairo and Tunisia, both of which are not characteristic of the majority of Africa.
Well, that's all I can think of for now. Thanks for being patient with me!!!
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